Annexiv-Waste Management in Switzerland and Ticino
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ANNEX IV - WASTE MANAGEMENT IN SWITZERLAND AND TICINO SWITZERLAND The Swiss Confederation, commonly known as Switzerland, is a federal republic made up of 26 cantons. Its capital is Bern and its population is about 8 million people. It is situated in Western Europe, bordered by Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Lichtenstein. Four official languages are spoken in Switzerland: German, French, Italian and Romansh. Other demographic characteristics of Switzerland are presented schematically in figure 1 and table 2. Politically, the Swiss Confederation is composed as follows. The federal constitution adopted in 1848 established the legal foundations of the country. This is one of the oldest constitutions in the world (Federal Chancellery, 2013). The federal constitution established the country as a direct democracy; therefore, citizens have the right to intervene in parliamentary decisions. Three levels of government exist: federal, cantonal and municipal. At the federal level, the parliament has the legislative power, the Federal Council is the executive and the Federal Court has judicial power. The parliament is composed of both the Council of States and the National Council, with 200 representatives in total. The Council of States has 46 representatives - two for each canton and 1 for half-canton. The National Council’s representatives are elected proportionally to the population of each canton. Modalities of election of the representatives vary within each canton. Switzerland is a very economically active and rich country. It has the fifth highest GDP per capita in the world (World Bank, 2013), and the majority of its businesses are from the tertiary sector. The most developed sectors in Switzerland are pharmaceutical and financial (with Zurich, Geneva and Lugano being the three biggest financial centres). The average salary in Switzerland is about 6,000 CHF a month, calculated over 13 months (see table 1). TABLE 1: GROSS MONTHLY SALARY BY MAJOR REGION IN 2010 (SOURCE: UST, 2013B) In 2010, the Swiss Confederation produced 7.562 million tons of waste. This was broken down as follows: 2.76 million tons (349 kg per capita) of residual waste was burned in incinerators, 2.808 million tons (357 kg per Page 1 of 7 capita) was recycled, and 1.990 million tons (253 kg per capita) was ‘other waste’ (special, bulky, medical, sludge, etc.) (Swissinfo, 2013a). Everything concerned with waste management is included in the federal law on the environment, called RS 814.01 Legge Federale sulla protezione dell’ambiente (LPAmb). This was first introduced on 7th October 1983, and has since been modified several times, most recently in August 2010. The federal law on the environment establishes that cantons are responsible for the management of waste in Switzerland (LPAmb, art. 31). On a cantonal level, each needs to develop a plan for waste disposal and to determine the infrastructure required (i.e., incinerators, landfills, etc.) without over- or under-estimating the capacity needed. These plans must be transmitted officially to the federal level. This responsibility has, in turn, been delegated by the cantonal authority to the municipal level. The most important directive taken in recent years by the federal council was the need for municipalities to finance at least 80% of the MSW management costs with a tax that applies causality - or, the ‘polluter pays’ principle (see art. 32a LPAmb). Although the federal level has no responsibilities in terms of waste management, it can exert great influence by emanating directives or laws that must be applied at the cantonal and municipal level. For example, the federal council and federal parliament, on the suggestion of the UFAFP (Ufficio Federale dell’Ambiente, delle Foreste e del Paesaggio), introduced a ban on landfills. From 1st January 2000, all residual and bulky waste (that was previously designated to landfills) had to be diverted into incinerators. This implied an increased need for incineration capacity and all cantons needed to adapt their plans to the new law. Surface 41,285 km2 Population 7,954,622 Population density 192.67 Percentage men - women 49.2 % - 50.8 % Percentage Swiss - foreign 78.3 % - 21.7 % Unemployed (registered) (%) Average gross income 5,979 CHF / month Percentage population: - 0-19 - 21.2 % - 20-64 - 62.2 % - more than 65 - 16.6 % Households: 3,505,616 - 1 person - 1,274,641 (36.4 %) - couples without children - 979,030 (27.9 %) - 1 parent families - 188,142 (5.4 %) - couples with children - 912,778 (26 %) - others - 151,024 (4.3 %) Businesses 312,900 - in tertiary sector - 239,800 (76%) GDP (total) 586,784 milion CHF GDP per capita 74,160 CHF TABLE 2: SUMMARY OF GEOGRAPHIC, DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC VARIABLES IN CANTON TICINO (DATA 2010) (SOURCE: FEDERAL CHANCELLERY, 2013) Page 2 of 7 FIGURE 1: SOCIO DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES OF SWITZERLAND (SOURCE: FEDERAL CHANCELLERY, 2013) Page 3 of 7 TICINO Canton Ticino is situated in the southern part of the Alps. It borders three other Swiss cantons: Valais to the west, Uri to the north, and Graubünden to the east. South of the canton are the Italian regions of Piemonte and Lombardia. FIGURE 2: MAP OF CANTON TICINO WITH ITS DIFFERENT DISTRICTS Ticino’s administrative capital is Bellinzona. It has a surface area of 2,812.2 square kilometres and is the eighth most populous canton, with 333,753 inhabitants. According to the constitution, Ticino is a democratic republic with Italian language and culture, and is politically divided into eight districts: Bellinzona, Blenio, Leventina, Locarno, Lugano, Mendrisio, Rivera and Vallemaggia (see figure 2). These eight districts are then separated into 38 sub-districts that include 157 municipalities1 (UStat, 2013; Repubblica e Cantone Ticino, 2013). 51.5% of Ticino’s population is female and the percentage of foreign people is slightly higher than the national average: almost 87,000 foreign people currently reside in the canton (26%). In Ticino, there are 134,916 households, of which around 99,000 (73.5%) live in individual homes. This is particularly interesting for the purpose of the research. Canton Ticino is economically very active, with more than 21,000 businesses - mainly from the tertiary sector (80%). In 2010, only 2.3% of the population was registred as unemployed. Despite this (as seen in table 1 above), Ticino has the lowest average salary of all cantons in Switzerland. Figure 3 and table 3, below, present in detail the most important socio-economic variables of canton Ticino. 1 Data referring to the 1.01.2012. Page 4 of 7 FIGURE 3: POLITICAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC STRUCTURE OF CANTON TICINO (SOURCE: USTAT, 2013) Surface 2,812.20 km2 Population 333,753 Population density 118.68 Percentage male - female 48.5% - 51.5% Percentage Swiss - foreign 74% - 26% Registered unemployed 7,593 (2.3%) Average gross income 5,076 CHF/month Percentage of population aged: - 0-19 - 18.9% - 20-64 - 60.7% - More than 65 - 20.4% Households: 134,916 - One-person - 35.8% - Couples without children - 23.5% - One-parent families - 6.3% - Couples with children - 30.6% - Others - 3.8% Type of building: 84,838 (no. residential buildings) - Single household - 73.5% - Multiple households - 26.5% House size: - 1-2 rooms - 23.5% - 3-4 rooms - 56.8% - 5 or more rooms - 19.7% Businesses 21,506 GDP 21,984 million GDP per capita 65,254 TABLE 3: SUMMARY OF GEOGRAPHIC, DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC VARIABLES IN CANTON TICINO (DATA 2010) (SOURCE: USTAT, 2013) Page 5 of 7 Waste management As already stated above, cantonal authorities delegated the responsibility of waste collection and disposal to the municipalities, most of which manage the collection and disposal of waste themselves. Others collaborate with other municipalities, or outsource the service to private companies (especially smaller municipalities). The main law that regulates the MSW management is the cantonal environmental protection law (LALPAmb) that has been drawn upon the federal environmental protection law (LPAmb), and was issued in 2004. In most of the municipalities, underground containers, both for residual and recyclable waste, are available. Waste that cannot be recycled (residual and bulky) is transported to the incinerator at Giubiasco (ICTR), directly or through one of the transfer stations2. Giubiasco’s incinerator was built in 2010 and is managed by the Azienda Cantonale dei Rifiuti (ACR). Before 2010, all non-recyclable waste was transported to other cantons for disposal. The construction of the new incinerator thus permitted a reduction of costs from 280 CHF/ton to the current 175 CHF/ton. The quantities of waste in Ticino increased (as shown in figure 4) from 150,000 tons in 1995 to almost 200,000 tons in 2006. In 2011, it decreased again to around 180,000. MSW in Ticino: Quantities 250.000 200.000 150.000 Total Non recyclable waste 100.000 Ton of waste Recyclable waste 50.000 0 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 FIGURE 4: MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE QUANTITIES IN TICINO FROM 1995 TO 2011. SOURCE: USTAT, 2013 Cost varied greatly, depending on the fees applied in the years, from a minimum of 40 million in 1995 to a peak of almost 60 million in 2005. Nowadays, MSW in Ticino costs around 45 million in total (see figure 5). MSW in Ticino: Costs 70.000.000 60.000.000 50.000.000 40.000.000 Chf 30.000.000 Totale costi fr. 20.000.000 10.000.000 0 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 FIGURE 5: TOTAL COSTS OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN TICINO FROM 1995 TO 2011. SOURCE: USTAT, 2013 2 In canton Ticino there are 5 transfer stations: Coldrerio, Bioggio, Locarno Piano, Arbedo-Castione and Biasca. Page 6 of 7 The number of municipalities in Ticino has been reduced widely in the past years, due to the tendency of municipalities to merge together.